New America

New America is dedicated to the renewal of American politics, prosperity, and purpose in the digital age through big ideas, technological innovation, next generation politics, and creative engagement with broad audiences.

If the federal government pays for educational resources to be developed, should those resources belong in the public commons? Join New America for a conversation about how we should be thinking about the ownership of publicly funded educational materials.

Upcoming Events

If the federal government pays for educational resources to be developed, should those resources belong in the public commons? Join New America for a conversation about how we should be thinking about the ownership of publicly funded educational materials.

Join New America NYC on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act for a conversation on the modern struggle for voting rights and what it means for our larger understandings of freedom and democracy in America.

Join New America NYC for a screening of We Come As Friends and a post-screening discussion with Academy Award® nominated director Hubert Sauper and other experts in global development and international diplomacy on the future of a still young South Sudan and its place in African and global politics.

We've seen evidence of this in Europe, which has had unbundling in place for years. In Paris you can buy a 95 megabit-per-second connection for around $25 — all without having to tack on a TV or phone package. To American eyes, these are refreshing figures. For about twice as ...

Peter W. Singer, Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, says "deterrence" is the operative word in that sentence. Singer is the author of “Cybersecurity and Cyber War” and the new novel, “Ghost Fleet.” He discusses how cyber deterrence works and how it would prevent future attacks.

Medicare was difficult to achieve, even though the American public was less ideologically divided over the proposal than it has been over, say, the Affordable Care Act. According to Julian Zelizer’s wonderful book on the Congressional battles over the Great Society, polling in the mid-1960s showed that a majority of Americans favored government-funded health care for the elderly over a privately-financed program.Yet while Medicare was widely hailed as a groundbreaking moment for American health care policy, it actually disappointed liberals in some respects. As Zelizer writes, the legislation “was a far cry from the program President Truman had proposed,” and “provided federal support only to a segment of the population.”

"There is going to be another argument about how you fix the long-term challenges for [Medicare]," said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Princeton and the author of "The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress and the Battle for the Great Society." Medicare's long-term viability will probably require either cuts in benefits or higher taxes, he said, and "the most powerful way to do that politically is some kind of differentiation in who has to pay."

"We have a tendency to forget the history of laws that extended the obligations and commitments of the federal government. But the passage of Medicare and Medicaid, which shattered the barriers that had separated the federal government and the health-care system, was no less contentious than the recent debates about the Affordable Care Act," said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton historian.

For many generations, government health programs were viewed as pariahs. As noted by Professor Julian Zelizer in his essay "Origins, Vision and the Challenge of Implementation," "the struggle leading up to the passage of Medicare and Medicaid was nothing short of explosive … as proposing health insurance was viewed as the third rail of politics." Attempts by President Truman were fought bitterly by the AMA and Republicans in Congress.

P.W. SINGER and August Cole discuss their new thriller, in which America's navy fights back against a Chinese invasion of Hawaii with the support of hackers, venture capitalists and an eccentric Australian billionaire

WASHINGTON,
DC — Today
six members of the Senate Commerce Committee, led by Sen. Brian Schatz
(D-Hawaii), sent a letter to FCC Chairman Tom
Wheeler calling on the agency to proactively initiate a process to ensure that
mobile carrier LTE-U technology will not disrupt consumer use of Wi-Fi on
unlicensed spectrum ...

A collaboration between the Academy and Jiuyuan Hi-Tech Equipment Corporation, the Low Altitude Guard I is a 10 kilowatt laser meant to zap low flying drones up to 2 kilometers away. The Low Altitude Guard I's electro-optical turret can see out to 5 kilometers. Promotional literature brags about its automated fire control-- it's able to identify and track rogue drones so that the operator only needs to press a firing button. The Low Altitude Guard's small size allows for stealthy placement on high-rise buildings and around critical infrastructure like airports and dams. Lasers are also a cheaper and safer lethal air defense option, especially in urban areas, compared to cannons and missiles.

Myths about Medicare and Medicaid persist for the simple reason that they are politically useful, even as Americans continue to grapple with questions of cost, compassion, and the role of government in their lives. But the facts of history are stubborn. Despite the myths and political turmoil, those who support Medicare and Medicaid can take satisfaction in these programs and their underlying moral commitments, having reached the half-century mark.